Safety Issue PBO Feb

[mickp]

As an avid reader of PBO this Forum and a safety minded sailor surely all articles featured in PBO should be published with safety in mind.... I refer to a picture on page 99 in issue 422 Feb "Chartering in the Sun" which shows a lady with two children sitting on the stern of a large yacht with no Lifejackets ?, a man sitting in the cockpit with baby in arms...Should the lady and children fall overboard, they may not get noticed and how does the skipper conduct a man overboard for three people in the water one of his crew is unusable ( holding the baby ) which probably would get injured in the manouver and panic that ensures.
The skipper of this boat has no consideration for the safety of his crew.

 

[LadyInBed]

Was the boat under way? If not, then the 'crew' might well be regularly jumping into the water!

 

[mickp]

Under full sail NM

nm

 

[Nikolai]

We russians...

What an awful thing You describe!
We russians are known as never-caring-about-safety. But these years me and my friends always wear life-jackets when sailing the Onego-Sea, because there are all too many accidents now when people behaving in such a way just disappeared in its clear cold waters...
I didn't see the picture, but it is of course no good placing it in PBO.

Nikolai

 

[graham]

Its easy to be lulled into a false sense of security in warm climates in a relaxed atmosphere.possibly the scene was posed and shot from a rib following close behind.

Someone once questioned my taking my small children to sea in small yachts I argued that they would be in considerably more danger travelling by car to a theme park .

My rule with children is simple if they are not down below they have lifejackets on. I must be one of the few skippers who has succesfully recovered Donald Duck in a duck overboard emergency.Spent an hour looking for a Panda on the Minehead foreshore.And changed a nappy single handed reefed down off the English and Welsh Light buoy.

 

[Twister_Ken]

And they often publish pix of people in cockpits not wearing crash hats. It only takes the boom to swing across unexpectedly.

In fact, maybe immersion suits and full body armour should be mandated as soon as we walk down the jetty.

 

[gus]

Or as one twat of a Health and Safety inspector stated - 'That the pontoons in the marina should have a waist high fence down either side'!!!

 

[Guest]

I must admit that I thought this posting was a bit sanctimonious........until I saw the picture. It's horific!

 

[Miker]

I couldn't agree more with your post. The PBO regularly shows pictures of yachts reefed and heeled over with the crew not wearing life jackets. So much for preaching safety.

 

[RobertMartin]

i know everyone is going to yell at me, but I go sailing to get away from all the rules and 1984 restriction that the lords of our fair lands enforce. I agree if we take children to sea then off course they should been made to wear life jackets, but as for the rest of us, I think its an issue of seamanship. Any good skipper would know when to wear the correct gear. I know we all want to live in a safe,cosy no one shout at me world, but I do not go sailing to stay safe, if I was really that worried i would never get on my motorbike!!!

Bobby aka Seawolf..
Sail as if your free

 

[Guest]

You should have put the immersion and armour suits on even before you left home, after all you might have driven under a low bridge that rips the roof off (your helmet would have protected your head) and then driven into a rain downpour straight afterwards where the immersion suit saves you.

Seriously though I agree with non-strong swimmers wearing life jackets ALL the time and this is the rule on my boat but then I don't go outside the bay areas. The new offshore racing rules here state that inflateable lifejackets are to be worn at all times but that is a different situation to cruising.

I suspect this will never be a finished discussion as so many safety issues are and it comes dfown to commonsense at the time.

When the PBO issue gets here I'll see what the fuss is about.

 

[HaraldS]

no problem! the boat following them to take the silly picture would pick them up.

 

[summerwind]

Are you the bloke who wears his Personal Flotation Device to use the tiolet at the marina?

 

[billmacfarlane]

Hear hear ! NM

!

 

[Boathook]

I also go sailing to get away from regulations. It can be dangerous but that is part of the 'fun'. Anyway if I always wore a harnes/lifejacket my suntan would be incomplete!!

 

[graham]

Like most people part of the attraction of sailing is the sense of freedom .I would hate it to be over regulated but I do agree with the original posters view that children should allways wear lifejackets except when down below.

 

[ArthurWood]

Re: Motorbike

A Harley, no doubt!

 

[Guest]

Skipper could be a contender for the Darwin awards, removing suspect intelligence from the gene pool.

Regards,

Peter
http://www.mistressofmourne.com